Containers and individual items are constantly packed and unpacked in fulfillment centers that manage movement and storage of items sold on electronic marketplaces. In modern warehouses or fulfillment centers, automation is heavily used and items are often sorted and moved to different locations by item conveyors. Some item conveyors transport items directly into containers, to workstations accessible to human workers, or to alternative conveyors for moving the items about the fulfillment center.
One type of conveyor is a rail-mounted conveyor which moves items through the inventory management facility using one or more fixed rails. Inventory management systems based on rail-mounted conveyors include a rail that transits through the inventory management facility and transits above multiple potential destinations for an item that is to be sorted and sent to a particular destination in the facility (e.g., to shipping, to a particular storage location, or any other suitable location).